Introduction
"Robotech the movie" is one of those films where the story behind the making of it is much more entertaining than the movie itself. Unfortunately only one member of the production staff, Carl Macek, has ever spoken publicly about the film's production. He has always been vocal about his dislike of the film, and those who were in charge of producing and distributing it. Up until mid 2006, fans have only heard his side of the story and no one else's. In July 2006, Tom Bateman, an events coordinator at Harmony Gold who has seen the original first draft script of the film and other production materials, confirmed on the Robotech.com message boards some of what Maeck has said, but contradicted other parts of it. Mudding the waters further are stories told by fans, which through "Chinese Whispers" have been distorted and have strayed greatly from the truth over the years. In this section I will present what is known about the production of the film mostly using interviews and quotes from Carl Macek from the last 20 years. I've tried to make it as accurate and complete as possible.

Expansion of the Robotech Franchise
During 1985, an American company named Harmony Gold created an 85 part TV series named "Robotech" out of three unrelated Japanese animated TV series; "Macross", "Southern Cross" and "Mospeda". It was a major success, and a number of toy, book and other merchandise tie-ins also built on that success. Sometime during 1985, executives at Harmony Gold decided to release a "Robotech" theatrical feature initially in time for a Christmas 1985 release. The idea behind this was the revenue generated from the profits of the film could be used as capital to fund the follow up Robotech TV series, "Robotech II: The Sentinels" (1).

Realising that an animated film could not be created within the allotted timeframe, they looked at existing anime films that could be used as a basis for the feature. This is the point where the story gets a little murky. One version has Harmony Gold trying to acquire the "Macross" movie, "Macross Do You Remember Love?". Supposedly Tatsunoko, the Japanese studio that produced all three series that made up the "Robotech" TV series, had optioned the film for a US theatrical release, in the hope that "Robotech" would be a mega hit. They forbid Harmony Gold the rights to the film. The second story is more plausible. While Harmony Gold didn't try to acquire the "Macross" movie, Tatsunoko still put restrictions on the use of any "Macross" terminology such as "Super Dimensional Fortress", "Zentradi" and even "Protoculture" for any planned "Robotech" theatrical feature. But according to a March 1986 interview with Richard Firth, director of creative services at Harmony Gold, and published in the fanzine "Macross Life" in May 1986, Harmony Gold didn't want to use the "Macross" film because of the cost of the licence and that it "did not have much to do with what [the company was] doing anymore" and that "it just did not suit [the company's] purpose" (2). Eventually Toho International licensed an appalling English dub of "Macross Do You Remember Love?" to Family Home Entertainment through Peregrine Films in 1987, who then proceed to cut nearly 30 minutes from the film for a US video release.

Pre-production, the First Script and It's Dubbing
Harmony Gold eventually bought the rights to "Megazone 23". This was a stroke of luck, as many of the staff who worked on "Macross" had created "Megazone 23", and it had a very similar elements and design to that of "Macross". Carl Macek, producer and overseer of the "Robotech" TV series, re-wrote the storyline to the film. Steve Kramer, one of the key script writers for "Robotech" wrote the screenplay for the film. This early version of the film was set during the SDF-1's return to Earth after accidentally warping to Pluto's orbit in the third episode of "Robotech". The fan versions of this story and seemingly Macek's version of events supposedly differ greatly here from the actual screenplay. The story goes that the lead character was called Mark Landry, who was a relative of Rick Hunter. But Tom Bateman who has read Steve Kramer's script claims that it makes no mention that the character is in any way related to Rick Hunter. And the character's name isn't even Mark Landry, it's Mark Harris (3).

According to the interview with Richard Firth in "Macross Life", the script went something like this; The SDF-1 is making it's way back to Earth after accidentally warping into to Pluto's orbit. A young man named Mark Harris finds out about Earth government's attempts to cover up the fate of the SDF-1 and the secrets of Robotechnology, so he decides to make the information public by using a transformable bike that he has acquired from a friend. But Mark's friend is killed by the military for showing him the bike. A group in the military, headed up by B.D. Edwards, who believe that Mark should be stopped at all costs and that they should be in control of the Earth. Firth's description of the script seems garbled at times, but suggests that the three girls (known as Becky, Stacy and Kelley in the final version of the film) know about the government's conspiracy and help Mark. He also says that the film "cut[s] back and forth from what's happening on Earth" (2). I am unsure if this means that they were planing to cut in footage from "Macross" or "Southern Cross", or if they were writing the script in such a way that it would have taken place in space and on Earth without any need for additional footage. According to Macek the film was almost a straight dub of the original with very few cuts and only cosmetic changes, such as some of the dialogue and music. Bateman pretty much confirms Macek's and Firth's stories, and adds that most of the character's names are different from the finished product. Bateman's opinion of the script was that it would have made a "good movie and a fitting entry into the 'Robotech' universe" (3).

At the time of the film's production, Harmony Gold was working on another project, a 65 episode follow up to "Robotech" called "The Sentinels", which was an original production being animated for the US market by Tatsunoko. In late 1985, Macek left the dubbing of "Robotech the movie" to Harmony Gold's preferred dubbing studio, Intersound, so he could head off to Japan to check production on "The Sentinels". But upon returning to the US, Macek was a little horrified at the results of the dubbing of "Robotech the movie". "Every grunt, every groan, every eye blink [...] was accompanied by some noxious sound. [...] It was the most excessive use of 'Robotech-isms' you can imagine" said Macek in an interview (4). Strangely Bateman claims that he can find no evidence that Steve Kramer's script was ever dubbed (3), but no one can really say how much access he has to Harmony Gold's archives, and he certainly wasn't employed by the company during the time the film was in production. Also a flood destroyed some of Harmony Gold's archives in the mid 1990's, so perhaps the audio masters for this version were destroyed.

Enter Cannon Films
Distribution of the movie was to be handled by Cannon Films. Now Cannon Films were pretty notorious in the 1980's for releasing and distributing, quite frankly, exploitative trash. Some of their more notable titles include "Death Wish 2", "The Last American Virgin", the live action "Masters of the Universe" and "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo". Upon showing the completed film to the head of Cannon, Menachem Golan, Macek says that Golan exclaimed that the film "had nothing to do with Robotech" and it wasn't a "Cannon movie". Golan suggested cutting scene after scene and complained that there was "too many girls" and that "we want lots of guns, lots of shooting, lots of robots". According to Macek, he was given 72 hours to create a new movie, which he did by following Golan's suggested changes (4) (though Bateman claims Ardwight Chamberlain's script for the completed film didn't use any elements from Steve Kramer's script). To make up for the amount of cut footage, Golan told him to edit in footage from "Southern Cross", the Japanese anime series which formed the "Robotech Masters" saga, which was screening at the time in most US markets. Macek objected to this and said that because "Megazone 23" had been filmed in 35mm and "Southern Cross" in 16mm, that the resulting film would look awful on a cinema screen. He was told by Golan, "don't worry, just do it!". Macek completed the new edit, then showed the film to Cannon executives without any audio, while performing the entire script to the film himself. After the screening, Golan apparently said "Now this is a Cannon movie!" (4).

"Megazone 23" has a pretty dark ending, and according to Macek, he discussed this with Idol Co Ltd who apparently agreed that the ending would be unsuitable for a theatrical release (despite the fact the OVA had already had a short theatrical release in Japan). Macek commissioned new 10 minute animated ending for the movie, using Harmony Gold's own script and US drawn storyboards. Somehow the end result was very good, and the animation was pretty much consistent with the existing "Megazone 23" footage, though this ending would make little sense if added to the original OVA. In 2007 at an event celebrating the 23rd anniversary of "Megazone 23", the ending was played at a fan event. Afterwards director Ishigoro Noboru spoke about the ending and claimed that he had no knowledge of it. This is rather strange considering it had been released a number of times in Japan where it had been included as a bonus in the English language dub releases of "Megazone 23 Part II". The movie programme for that film also had a two page spread pictorial on the ending. Opening credits for "Robotech the movie" of panning shots of the sun and planets were also created by Idol Co Ltd and a "Star Wars" like text scrawl filling in the back story was also added to the film.  Though the soundtrack contained a number of new songs, the background music consisted mostly of re-used pieces from the Robotech series and "Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years."

The Finished Product, the Limited US Theatrical Release and Fan Reaction
"Robotech the movie" opened in 25 cinemas across the Metroplex area of Dallas, Texas on 25 July 1986. The reasoning behind using the Dallas Metroplex area as a test market, which according to a 1986 TV interview with Macek, was because that it represented "middle America", and the "Robotech" TV series had rated quite well there (5). Depending on who you talk to the audience reactions were vastly different. Some said audiences broke out into hysterics. Others reported that concerned mothers left the screenings in disgust with their children, appalled at the violence in the film. Others said that there wasn't much of a reaction to the film at all. In the September 1986 Lone Star Comics newsletter, "The Lone Star Express", Derek Wakefield wrote a very favourable review in his anime column "Banzai!" and noted that the film "had several good reviews by critics" (6). The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the only paper in the region to review the film, gave it a 7 out of 10 score (1).

The film apparently was still in cinemas a month after release. But it was considered a box office bomb, and plans to release it nationally were cancelled. Some of the factors in the film's failure may have been the fact that the advertising was pretty poor. TV advertisements seemed to only play during the very early morning. Newspaper advertisements seemed to be limited to the Sherman Democrat, who only had very limited press materials provided by Cannon to create the ad; a one sheet movie poster and issue 8 of the Robotech Masters comic book. The resulting ad, which used the comic's masthead, gave the impression the movie was called "The Robotech Masters". Embarrassingly, the ad was changed for the Sunday paper, which now had the movie's title as "Robotech Masters of the Universe" (1).

There were also problems at the theatres themselves, with the film only being shown in afternoon matinee slots, which means adults only had the weekends to catch screenings of the film (1). And it was also competing against "Transformers the movie", which was better backed, both through advertising and budget, and was a much better film. The final public screening of the film the US was at the 2nd Los Angels International Animation Celebration in July 1987 at the Nuart Theatre. The movie played to a sell-out crowd (1).

Of course you could say that the reason it failed was that it wasn't a very good film, but as Hollywood has demonstrated before, quality doesn't always mean success. There's plenty of hit films which are just appalling as this one. The film itself has many problems. It is filled full of plot holes and inconsistencies, and worst of all it fails to connect into the "Robotech" TV series. The movie takes place two years before episode 37, "Diana's Story". In that episode, the Earth has it's first encounter with the Robotech masters, but according to the movie they've already battled with them and shot down one of their flagships. It's such an incredibly bad continuity error. The other major problem is E.V.E. If she was part of the SDF-1's computer, and supposedly a very important part at that, why wasn't she mentioned before in the TV series? Colonel B.D. Andrews' off screen abduction by the Robotech Masters was pretty absurd, and blatant continuity errors such as Mark's motorbike being destroyed, then seeing him ride the same bike later in the film are really annoying. The dialogue is pretty bad and the plot is rather hard to follow at times, as literally two stories are being told with two sets of characters who never interact with each other at all during the film. The jarring look between the styles of "Megazone 23" and "Southern Cross" makes things worse. Add in the fact that all of the "Southern Cross" footage in the film had already been seen in the "Robotech" TV series, portraying a completely different story and set of events.

But personally I find the film to be quite fun, albeit quite silly. And let's face it, the other parts in the "Robotech" franchise aren't exactly masterpieces. The constant changing of what Protoculture was in the TV series made parts of it incomprehensible. "Robotech II: The Sentinels", considered by most "Robotech" fans as part of the official story, is just as bad and as poorly written as "Robotech the movie" for most of it's length. Interestingly the movie also brought about some of the first negative fan reactions against Macek. At the Creation Convention in San Francisco in the summer of 1986, (which Carl Macek was a guest of), a two page typewritten pamphlet called "Is Carl Macek the Anti-Christ?" was distributed by fans. The main point of the pamphlet was a protest against Macek's editing of "Megazone 23", though the resulting mess of a film was mostly due to Cannon's interference, and wasn't entirely Macek's fault.

Overseas Release of the Film and Future Video Releases
Amazingly the film managed to have a decent and somewhat quite successful run in South America, especially Argentina. Columbia Pictures, who seemingly had control of the Cannon catalogue in the UK at the time, must have been planning to release the film in UK theatres at one point. The British Board of Film Classification list the film as being classified in December 1986 and it's theatrical trailer as being classified in May 1987 (7). It never made it to cinemas, but a VHS release of the film appeared on UK video shelves via Rank Home Video in 1988. The film also made it to video in various other European countries such as Sweden, broadcast on South African TV in the late 1980's, and was even released on laserdisc in 1991 in the Netherlands and Belgium, still in English, but with Dutch subtitles. The ending of "Robotech the movie" lived on as bonus material on later Japanese releases of "Megazone 23", mostly as an extra to an English dubbed "International Edition" of "Megazone 23 Part II" released in 1987. Supposedly Harmony Gold helmed production of this obscure English dub circa late 1986, and allegedly Carl Macek directed the dub (which would be really ironic if true). Though for whatever reason, this English dub version of "Megazone 23 Part II" was never released outside Japan.

By 2004, ADV Films had acquired all three parts of "Megazone 23" and the original version of "Southern Cross". Material on the extras discs of their "Robotech" DVD releases suggested they had access to "Robotech the movie" in it's entire uncut glory. They seem to have all the elements of the film they needed licensed, so why didn't they release it like just about every other piece of obscure "Robotech" related material they put out? On a message board I had read that John Ledford of ADV Films confirmed in an interview that ADV did have access to the film, but the company had yet to decide if a release was financially viable (this has been reiterated at a number of ADV panels at US anime conventions). According to another post on a "Robotech" message board, someone also asked ADV's Matt Greenfield about it. His response was that they did discuss the possibility of releasing the film as an extra on their "Robotech" releases, but that never eventuated. One of the probable reasons why it was never released was the fact that the producer of the ADV "Robotech" DVDs was Carl Macek himself. In an interview he said "I don't consider [the movie] to be a part of the timeline of the 'Robotech' era whatsoever. Really, I'd like everybody to forget about 'Robotech the movie' altogether [...] I am not anywhere near impressed with it". Though Macek also said this about a future release of the film; "It does not make it impossible for someone else to release 'Robotech the movie' in the future. I just don't want to be the one to do it" (4). But despite the resurgence in interest of the "Robotech" franchise in recent years, to this day the film has yet to be re-issued, and it looks highly unlikely it will ever be.